Voter Registration

[Jonathan Buhacoff]

Proposal:

The registrar must confirm evidence of citizenship and residence for each person who is registered to vote.

Intent:

Voting is for citizens. A person claiming to be a citizen should be able to provide evidence of this, such as a birth certificate and state identification, passport, naturalization certificate or other documents. It is the voter’s responsibility provide this evidence. However, a registrar who already has access to evidence should not unnecessarily burden voters to obtain and confirm the evidence.

The registrar should also check with other districts to ensure the person is only registered to vote in a single district for an election. The most recent valid registration should replace any prior registrations.

Discussion:

Government offices have records of documents they issue to citizens. Therefore, if a citizen has lost their documents it is possible to recover. It is the citizen’s responsibility to keep a copy of their documents in a safe place. If they don’t, and they miss an election because they didn’t have evidence and they moved to a new district where they weren’t already registered, that is their consequence, and they can recover and vote in the next election.

Some people claim that demanding evidence of citizenship to register to vote is a form of voter suppression. That might be true if the rule change happens a short time before an election in a district that has a majority of people who lean towards a specific political party and are unlikely to have their documents. It would be better to enact new voting rules immediately after an election, instead of before, so that everyone has time to adjust before the next election. But the mere idea of requiring evidence of citizenship to register to vote is not voter suppression and equating these two things without mention of any other circumstances is a fallacy.

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